Dixie man arrested in Levy on charges of dealing in morphine

Robert Daniel Jones, 31, was arrested on charges of sale of morphine, two counts of possession of morphine, and possession of imitation marijuana.

By Karen VoylesStaff writer

A Dixie County man was arrested Wednesday following an undercover drug deal that investigators said involved dozens of powerful doses of morphine.

The Levy County Sheriff’s Office Drug Task Force and Chiefland Police Department arrested Robert Daniel Jones, 31, of Old Town, on charges of sale of morphine, two counts of possession of morphine, and possession of imitation marijuana (which is considered a controlled substance under Florida law).

Task force members said Jones met a confidential source at the Tattoo Parlor in Chiefland, where he sold 100 morphine pills — each containing 100 milligrams of the drug — for $1,000.

When Jones was arrested, deputies said he had one more morphine pill in his pocket and 12 grams of K2 — imitation marijuana.

University of Florida pharmacy professor emeritus Paul Doering said 100-milligram morphine pills are not what a na´ve drug user would take for a first-time dose of opioids, “but these types of drugs can be a Godsend to people at the end of their lives.”

A 100-milligram dose is usually prepared as an extended release pill because otherwise it could be so powerful that it could be fatal to those unaccustomed to using them, Doering said.

“What causes them to be so dangerous is that to circumvent the delayed release, people will grind them up or chew them or heat them and smoke the vapors,” Doering said. “Then the problem becomes drug dependency continued use creates, and after a while you really don’t get high anymore. And you are using these drugs just for survival after a while.”